Are Pot Smoking Clubs The New Bars?

In Colorado, legalized marijuana led to pot smoking clubs–where people 21 and up won’t be bothered for smoking weed. | Source: ShutterStock

Drinking alcohol in bars is pretty normal for the 21 and up set, and now pot smoking clubs are becoming the equivalent of that for smoking weed. Think hookah bars, but with legalized marijuana instead of tobacco.

The pot smoking clubs are becoming popular in Colorado, where–as a lot of you already know–under a new law, people over 21 can carry up to an ounce of marijuana and are allowed to up to grow six marijuana plants. People over 21 are allowed to smoke in private places, but not in public–which is pretty much for their own good, since marijuana is still technically illegal under federal law (which trumps state law always).

The difference between a pot smoking club and a bar with booze (besides the smell)? At bars, people buy alcohol. Since marijuana isn’t legalized nationally yet, pot smoking clubs can’t actually sell marijuana to people who spend time there smoking weed.

Colorado’s marijuana clubs are also serving a different purpose than a bar. Most landlords and building owners don’t care if you drink in your own apartment or house, but a lot of them have rules against smoking–be it pot or cigarettes–because of the smell, the potential damage to property (booze may stain a carpet, but a misplaced cigarette can start a fire). Pot smoking clubs provide a private place where people who register, pay a fee, and are over 21 can smoke without getting into trouble or evicted.

The director of one of the first legal marijuana clubs in Colorado, Club 64 (named after Amendment 64, which legalized marijuana in the state), said that they want to extend the club to not just be about smoking weed, but about getting friends together to do all sorts of stuff–from mountain biking to rafting and skiing. We’d just advise not to bike, raft, ski–or drive–high.

Do you think pot smoking clubs will become as popular as bars? Do you think other states should legalize smoking weed? If smoking weed were legal where you live, would you go to a pot smoking club? Tell us in the comments!